I was watching this squirrel one afternoon. I could see he was working on something real serious like. Turned out to be a green Sweetgum ball. I've never seen that before. I was just wondering if anyone else has observed a squirrel working on a sweetgum ball?

FireCloud, Yes, in season, the squirrels have lots of acorns. I'm sure you understand tree squirrels have a varied diet, consisting of nuts, seeds, fruits, fungi, insects, and green vegetation along with other things. Not to mention, black oil sunflower seeds from my bird feeders.

Looks like my oak trees will have a good crop of acorns this year as usual. The acorns are starting to fill out nicely.

Hi Quigley, The camera I use most of the time now days is an Olympus E-410 DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera. I've had the camera for a couple of years or so. It's not the latest by any means. I have a couple of lens for the camera. One lens goes from wide angle to slight tele. The other lens goes from about a standard lens opening to about 10X telephoto. The DSLR cameras are much like the film 35MM SLRs. However the DSLRs have lots more features.

I've been doing photography for about 60 years so I've accumulated a few cameras over the years. Here's a photo of the E-410. I took the photo with another digital camera. My little Cannon S3IS. I think the squirrel photo was taken with the S3IS and the acorns were taken with the E-410.

Thank you Honey Bee. Glad you enjoyed the photos. I've seen Chickadees and Gold Finches getting the seeds out of the sweetgum balls in the winter. That was the first time I'd ever seen a squirrel working on a green one.

I saw one a month ago running across the backyard with a small green tomato in it's mouth. The tomato was twice the size of it's head. The next day I went to pick up all of the branches on the ground before I mowed. I found 3 half eaten maters.. They also destroyed half dozen sun-flower plants in one weekend.

FC, I have a huge Cypress tree in my back yard. That tree has never had any cones. Got any idea why it hasn't made some.

Merrill, It's sure hard to keep squirrels off of sunflowers. I feed black oil sunflower seeds most of the year and sometimes I get some volunteer sunflowers. Here's one that made it most of the way to maturity.

Ironwood, I started out many years ago with an Olympus OM-1, then purchased an OM-10, from there I got the OM-2N, next was the OM-3Ti. Now I am looking at the E450. Wonder how long it will be before it becomes obsolete.

A COUNTRY BOY CAN SURVIVEHUNTING IS NOT A SPORT, IT'S A WAY OF LIFE

Be Carefull of The Words You Say. Just Keep Them Soft, And Sweet. You never Know From Day To Day, Which Ones You'll Have To Eat.

Terry, Sorry but the E450 is already obsolete. Olympus came out with the E600 August 30, 2009. It's a doozie too! I wonder how grainy the ISO 3200 will be. Sure would solve a lot of those early in the morning and late in the evening shots. That is if there is only a little graininess.

Just think, when I got my first 35MM, Kodak's Kodacolor print film was only ASA 25! Ektachrome slide film had and ASA of 85. Kodak's TriX black and white film, one of the fastest films at the time, was only ASA 400.